Olympic roundup: What Canada did on Day 9
Last Updated: Sunday, February 21, 2010 | 3:46 AM ET
By Jesse Campigotto, Brandon Hicks, Mihira Lakshman, Chris Iorfida and John Molinaro CBC Sports
The streak is over.
Canada failed to win a medal Saturday at the Vancouver Olympics, the first time since Games competition began Feb. 13 that a Canadian athlete hasn't reached the podiium.
Ahead of the men's 1,000-metre short-track speedskating final, hopes were high that brothers Charles and Francois Hamelin of Sainte-Julie, Que., would add to Canada's medal tally.
But the Hamelins were shut out, finishing behind Lee Jung-Su and Lee Ho-Suk, both of South Korea, and Apolo Anton Ohno of the United States in the five-man final.
Charles Hamelin, 25, was looking to add to the team-relay silver he won at the 2006 Torino Games.
The result continues his roller-coaster of emotions in Vancouver. He failed to make the 1,500 final last week and had to settle for a win in the B final, and he is the world-record holder in the 1,000.
In between, he celebrated as his girlfriend, fellow speedskater Marianne St-Gelais, won a surprise silver in the women's 500 on her 20th birthday.
He met up with Ohno three times on Saturday, winning in the quarters and finishing second to him in the semis.
Francois Hamelin, 22, was advanced to the final by the judges after he was thrown back and sent skidding in the semis by J.R. Celski of the United States.
Also on Saturday, Canada's best hope for an Olympic medal in the two-man bobsleigh competition crashed in the second run at the Whistler Sliding Centre.
The Canada-1 sled of Lyndon Rush and Lascelles Brown, third after the first run, set a torrid pace on their second run. But too much speed coming out of turn 13 forced the sled to flip over. They finished the run — upside down — but their time of 54.70 seconds, for a two-run total of one minute 46.37 seconds, took them out of the medal hunt.
Rush and Brown walked away from the crash uninjured.
Since they recorded an official time, and weren't disqualified, Rush and Brown theoretically could compete in Sunday's final two runs. But it's not likely and they are now changing their focus to the four-man competition.
Pierre Lueders, driving the Canada-2 sled with brakeman Jesse Lumsden, posted a two-run time of 1:44.06, good for sixth place after two of four runs.
Canada failed to reach the podium for the fifth time in as many alpine events at the Games.
Emily Brydon, the Fernie, B.C., athlete who is the best Canadian hope for a medal, saw her Olympic career come to a bitter end when she crashed early in her run in the super-G.
Whistler's Britt Janyk almost fell near the top of the course when she clipped a gate, but she managed to stay on her skis and finished 16th.
Georgia Simmerling of New Westminster, B.C., was 26th in her Olympic debut. Shona Rubens of Canmore, Alta., skied well early in her run before missing a gate.
The news wasn't all bad for Canada.
Team Canada and skip Kevin Martin prevailed in a marquee curling matchup, beating defending world champion David Murdoch from Great Britain 7-6 on Saturday night.
The win broke a four-game losing streak Martin had against Murdoch's rink, which includes three losses in the 2009 world championship. Martin held the world title in 2008.
Canada improved to 6-0, staying in first place during the round-robin portion of the competition. Next up for Martin is a date with the Americans (2-4) on Sunday morning.
Other Canadian results from Saturday:
Freestyle skiing, women's aerials, qualification — Veronika Bauer of Toronto finished 15th with a score of 160.46 (94.47, 65.99). Failed to make finals.
Ski jumping, men's individual long hill — Edmonton's Stefan Read finished 46th in the field of 50 with a jump of 104.5 metres and 71.6 points.
Cross-country skiing, men's 30-km pursuit — Ivan Babikov of Canmore, Alta., finished fifth with a time of 1:15:20.5; George Grey of Canmore, B.C., finished eighth (1:15:32.0); Alex Harvey of St-Ferréol, Que., finished ninth (1:15:43.0); Devon Kershaw of Canmore, Ont., finished 16th (1:16:23.6).
Short-track speedskating, women's 1,500 — Tania Vicent of Laval, Que., placed eighth overall (2:23.035); Kalyna Roberge of St-Etienne-de-Lauzon, Que., and Valerie Maltais, La Baie, Que., made it as far as the semifinals but neither advanced after finishing fifth in their races.
